The case relating to the CBI’s disproportionate assets probe against Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members is getting more and more complicated, reports Satya Prakash.

The case relating to the CBI’s disproportionate assets probe against Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members is getting more and more complicated.

Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati, who had in November last advised closure of the probe, is now appearing for the Centre in the case in the Supreme Court. He told a bench headed by Justice Altmas Kabir on Tuesday that his opinion was no longer relevant.

It was on the Solicitor General’s opinion that the CBI changed its stand in the case and insisted that it would like to submit the preliminary enquiry report to the Centre and not to the court. His latest submission could be read as the Centre’s attempt to distance itself from his earlier legal opinion in the case.

The court adjourned the case till February 10 after being informed that the CBI has changed its counsel. Instead of Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, on Tuesday another Additional Solicitor General, Mohan Parasaran, represented the agency in the case.

At the very outset, the court sought to know where Subramanium was. As the Centre, the CBI and Mulayam’s counsel — all wanted the case to be adjourned, the court made it clear that it would not allow further adjournments on the ground of change of counsel.

The court declined the Centre’s request to allow the CBI to examine the representations made by Yadav and his family members. “We can pass orders only after hearing the case on February 10,” said the bench, which had on January 6 slammed the CBI for seeking to submit its disproportionate assets probe report in the case to the Centre. The court had said it did not want the CBI to become an instrument in the hands of the Central Government.